The following ideals are a combination of necessary elements that I’ve found to be very effective for success in daily sales. On the surface, they are very simple, and as applied in practice, even simpler. Each single element contributes to the greater whole, and is vitally linked to the other two. Applied by themselves, they’re very useful, but together they make sales a magical experience, and brighten our every moment. The first ideal is a positive ATTITUDE. Your positive mental attitude is your driving force to any success you enjoy in every part of your life. Keep in mind this attitude IS NOT just a thought process; it’s a discipline and a commitment to live without attachment to negativity. Remember, you can’t give away what you don’t have. Each day you should wake to a rededication of being positive, simply by thinking and speaking positive thoughts. Remember EVERY action is preceded by a thought, so if you think negative, you speak and act negative, and you transmit what you have; negativity. NO ONE knows enough to be a pessimist! Our positive mental attitude is not something that comes and goes; it’s all consuming. It will make you feel good on the inside, even in spite of what may be happening on the outside. So “do what you ought, and trust what may be.”The second ideal is HUMOR. By this, I don’t mean just being funny either. It’s how you see things, because humor is a perspective for effective living, and a successful sales career. Humor is your ability to make others laugh and feel good in your presence, and make people smile. Just to hear people tell you “I enjoy talking to you,” or “you make me laugh a lot,” or “you just made my day better,” inspires all of us. It makes others look forward to talking to you instead of ducking your call. It is medicine; sales medicine. Give away humor & kind thoughts & they’re what you get back.The third ideal is ACTION. I like to think of action as “walking your talk.” When you wake each day to a clearly defined set of goals, you tend to act on the goals more often than not. Have a daily agenda for yourself and prioritize the agenda. Make that last call you’ve procrastinated on from time to time. Follow you own game plan for success, and do more than anyone else you know, so that you do enough to make you inspired to step higher each day. “Plan the work; then WORK THE PLAN!!” Keep in mind that when you talk prudence plus practice evasion, the sum is always ZERO. Remember always that TRUE NOBILITY is NOT being better than anyone else TODAY; it’s being better than YOU were yesterday!

How do you want to feel today? You can create whatever feeling you choose, with your actions.

Your feelings are not imposed on you from the outside. They occur because you exercise strategies to make them occur.

Yes, some of those strategies may include the way you choose to respond to events beyond your control. Yet it is the response, the chosen response within you, that creates the feeling, not the outside situation.

So how exactly do you wish to feel today? Then act like it.

The actions you take will create the feelings you seek. If you want to feel happy, and empowered, and fulfilled, then go through the physical motions of being happy, empowered and fulfilled.

Just Be Careful With the “Red Matter”In the month of June, a new (and totally awesome) Star Trek movie came out, & in it the evil Romulan Nero decided to neutralize Spock’s home planet, basically due to a working relationship gone bad. Nero was bitter, & with good reason, but spent lots of time growling around in the time-space continuum, seeking vengeance through dispensing a red matter substance, which was cute & bouncy to look at, but one drop was apocalytically devastating. We have a similar substance floating around these days here on planet Earth.The red matter in our industry (and life in general) always comes when all of the gloom-&- doom types see challenges as roadblocks and simply give up. Or even worse, when the alarmists of the world try & suck other companies into their own “black whole of doom and drama” with negative outlooks on anything and everything from industry collapse to civil war. The aftermarket recently witnessed a huge victory in the prebate decision for “Static Control” (HP) and against Lexmark. This decade long battle has surely changed the landscape of the aftermarket, but admittedly, for awhile it did look gloomy. Thank God WE NEVER bought into any of the drama, the negativity, or the doomsday prophets lies! Now, as evidenced by a million dollar month last month, it’s clear to see that our industry indeed does have a very bright future ahead.Make no mistake about it, our economy’s still faced with high unemployment rates, & balance sheet numbers that still look like they did get hit with a Romulan onslaught. Yet despite all present circumstances we must press on toward continuing our daily business, and keep the faith that alls well that ends well. This daily business includes an ongoing choice of seeing these challenges in the MOST positive light. Companies can be encouraged by the prebate case, and can look at growth in the MFP and color segments as indicators things are still going to be okay. The evil Romulan Nero dies badly (as tends to happen to bitter, evil Romulans) & the red matter took hold as Nero could not find a bright side to his situation. Aftermarket folks don’t have to focus on naysayers out there. A dark outlook is the red matter we will get if we’re not making the best use of positive marketing practices every day. My red matter says “Live long & PROSPER”……………Tommy